As The Snow Fell
by ladyoftheknightley
Summary: Getting snowed in isn't a problem a witch usually has to face, but Parvati's staying at her Muggle Grandmother's house and has to pretend she's not magical. That get surprisingly tough when the attractive man next door turns out to have a couple of secrets…


_Everything you recognise belongs to JKR; this is for hpendurance round 1 :) ETA: I uploaded the wrong version, here's the correct one!_

"I think it's pretty fair to say we're snowed in!"

Parvati resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Ah, yes, I forgot how snow stops us from being able to apparate. Or fly. Or even use the floo. As for Portkeys, once it's snowing, well, they're practically useless!"

"Your Grandmother's house isn't connected to the floo, you know that," her father sighed. "Come along indoors now, put that shovel away."

Parvati scowled at the spade, as though it was personally responsible for trapping her at her Grandmother's house. It was safer than scowling at her father, who was running on an even shorter fuse than she was, at this point. He squared his shoulders, muttered something incomprehensible under his breath, and made his way back indoors. Almost as soon as he'd opened the back door, Parvati heard her Grandmother chastise her son-in-law for letting the cold in, and she stifled a laugh.

She took her time putting the spades back in the garage. Of course, she and her father were both magical; they could easily have used some kind of heat charm to vanish the snow that was blocking the car in the driveway. And it certainly wasn't like either of them were reliant on the muggle contraption to leave, anyway. But her mother was not a witch, and neither was her grandmother. Naniji didn't know about magic, and so when they came to visit, neither she nor Padma were permitted to use it. This hadn't been so hard when they were in school—they were not allowed to use it in the holidays, anyway. But now, she was two years out of school, and used magic for everyday tasks so much it almost felt like she was missing a limb in not being able to whip out her wand for the simplest thing.

It didn't help that she was trapped at her Grandmother's without her sister—Padma had to work late at St. Mungo's, and so was going to "catch a train" (apparate) up from London to the tiny Yorkshire village her Grandmother lived in, and their father was going to drive out and pick her up that evening. But the snow had cancelled the trains: they had heard about it on the television that Naniji loved so much. Even though Padma could have apparated up as easily as she could in any weather, she had been forced to remain in London under the pretext of being unable to travel. Personally, Parvati _and_ Padma thought it was ridiculous that their parents still kept up the charade after all these years, but both their mother and father had made it clear that they were _not_ going to break the Statute, even for Naniji.

Unlike their daughters, they were not rule-breakers.

Parvati checked her watch. Barely five minutes had passed since she and her father had left to inspect the driveway; she could afford to stay outside a little while longer. She loved Naniji, but she needed a breather. She sat down on an upturned bucket and pulled her coat tighter around her. It was still snowing, though more lightly than it had been before. Everything seemed so much prettier, coated in the soft, white flakes.

Normally, she loved the snow. Unlike the irate muggles on the news reports—who had been horrified to find their travelling disrupted—it didn't normally have any effect on her life at all. Even if she had forgotten to wear her winter cloak and scarf (which, given that it was January, was unlikely) she could have simply cast a heating charm to keep warm. But tonight, given that it had trapped her here, she was beginning to understand the muggles' dislike for snow.

Friday night, and her she was in Upper Flagly—aka the back of the back of the back of beyond—and quite unable to leave, despite being more than capable of leaving. It was ridiculous. If it hadn't cleared by Monday morning, she'd damn well tell her Grandmother that she was _walking_ back down to London, and apparate away as soon as she was round the corner. There was only so much 'family time' one could take, after all.

"Want a light?"

Her hand was on the wand stashed away inside her coat before she'd even finished registering what the voice had said, and it took all her willpower not to draw it out. The voice—which belonged to a shadow figure lurking on the opposite driveway—seemed to realise that it had startled her, so the figure backed into the light cast by the nearest streetlight.

"Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to make you jump."

She forced herself to remain calm. Lord Voldemort had been dead for two years. He certainly wasn't lurking on a driveway in Yorkshire, offering people lights. Whatever _that_ meant. "It's okay," she said. "I was miles away..."

"Somewhere a bit warmer, I hope?" asked the man. In the glow of the streetlamp, she could see that he looked a couple of years older than her, and was startlingly handsome. She hesitated a moment, then walked over to the edge of Naniji's driveway. It wasn't like there was anything else to do: she may as well stay out here as long as she could, talking to him.

Never let a good man go to waste, Lavender was always saying. It's a betrayal of the sisterhood!

"A bit of sunshine might be nice right now," she said. "Melting this snow so we're not trapped would be even more of a bonus."

"Is your car snowed in?" he asked. "I can give you a hand shovelling, if you'd like. I'm _very_ strong." He flexed a rather well defined arm at her and winked.

Parvati grinned, jutting out a hip and sticking her hand on it as she responded. "I've no doubt, but I'm here for the weekend anyway. If I'm still trapped here on Monday, I may have to call on your services..."

"The pleasure would be mine," he said. "Did you want a light, by the way?" She must have looked confused, because he elaborated. "For a cigarette?"

"Oh—no, thank you. I don't smoke," she said.

"D'you mind if I do?"

"It's a free country," she shrugged. He looked all around him, as though checking for monsters, then across at her.

"Um, can I ask you a huge favour?" he said. She raised an eyebrow. "Can I come and stand over there in the dark and smoke and could you tell me if you see anyone coming?" He looked so much like a naughty schoolchild that she couldn't help but laugh.

"I think you should at least tell me your name first," she said.

"Ashwin Nirwandi," he replied.

"Feel free, Ashwin. I'll be your lookout," she said, and he looked over at her with such gratitude she couldn't help grinning.

Again.

"You're sure you don't mind me smoking?" he asked.

She shook her head. "My best friend—Lavender—she smokes all the time. I'm used to it. Who're you hiding from, by the way?"

"My parents, who would disapprove in the extreme, Lavender's friend," he said. "And be very vocal about it. For the rest of the weekend, if not my life."

"I know that feeling," she muttered. He glanced questioningly at her. "I'm here for my Grandmother's birthday—it's tomorrow. I love her dearly, but..."

"You can't do anything right?"

She nodded. "On the bright side, my sister or mother can't, either. And my father...he even _breathes_ incorrectly in Naniji's opinion. So it's nothing personal, you understand."

"Of course," he said. "That's what families are like, huh?"

"Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em?" asked Parvati, smiling. Ashwin nodded. "So, do you live here, or...?" There was, she told herself, no harm in prolonging the conversation—Ashwin was the only person her own age she was likely to see all weekend and she wanted to make the most of interacting with someone younger than fifty. And it was _definitely_ his age, and not the fact that he was really, really attractive that kept her out in the freezing cold...

"No, my parents do," he said. "I'm up here visiting. I've been here three hours, and already..." He shrugged ruefully, indicating the cigarette.

"Hey, I'm not judging," Parvati smiled. "I wouldn't—" A car door slammed in the distance, and the noise made her jump and automatically reach for her wand again. Ashwin looked at her strangely, and she flushed; muttering something about it startling her. He nodded, accepting her explanation, but she realised he the look he was giving her seemed to indicate he was more considering _what_ she had done than _why_ she had done it.

"I hope you don't think me rude for asking—I mean, I'd hate to think I'd forget a face as lovely as yours—but: have we met before?" he asked.

She smiled. This was more familiar territory. She channelled her inner Lavender, and began twirling a lock of hair around her finger. "Well," she began, but before she could say anything more, a voice cut her off.

"Ashwin? Where are you?!"

"_Help_," Ashwin mouthed frantically at her, looking positively petrified. "It's my _mother_!"

Parvati hesitated for a fraction of a second, then saw the pleading look he was giving her. She never could resist a man with nice eyes...

"I'm sorry, Mrs Nirwandi," she said, stepping forward into the light. "Your son was helping me to dig out the car. We're snowed in, you see."

"Who are you?" the woman asked suspiciously. She stepped forward into the glow from a streetlamp, and Parvati saw her clearly: she was tall and stately looking, and her features were similar to her son's.

"I'm Parvati Patil," she said. "I'm Mrs Ameer's granddaughter? We're visiting for the weekend, and my father wanted to know if it would be possible to dig the car out. Your son saw me struggling with the shovel, and he came to help. You have raised a gentleman!" She knew she was laying it on a bit thick, but Mrs Nirwandi practically glowed at the praise, and stepped forward to introduce herself properly.

"Your grandmother speaks very highly of you," she said, "and your sister, too. Padma, is it?" Parvati nodded. "Well, it is a pleasure to meet you at last! You must come over to meet us properly."

"I think Parvati's quite busy this weekend," Ashwin said, appearing from behind her, cigaretteless. He winked at her, grinning, and she tried not to blush in front of his mother.

"Well, if this weather keeps up, she may be here for some time," Mrs Nirwandi said, and for the first time, Parvati thought that this might not be too terrible. "But we must all go inside now; it is very cold. Goodnight, Miss Patil."

"Goodnight, Mrs Nirwandi," Parvati said politely. "And, Ashwin...thank you for all your help."

He gave her another wink as his mother's back turned. "Likewise," he said.

Parvati turned and walked back towards her Grandmother's house, passing the spot where she and Ashwin had been standing. It was only as she did so that she realised how strange it was that there had been no lingering smell of cigarette smoke around him, or the pavement where they had been standing. She knew from being best friends with Lavender that the scent could take a while to dissipate, but around Ashwin, it had vanished.

Still, it was too cold to stand outside and think about it anymore, and so she made her way back indoors.

* * *

Overnight and throughout the next morning, it continued to snow, trapping them still further—or so her grandmother believed. Parvati herself was starting to get worried about work on Monday: the Ministry certainly wouldn't accept 'couldn't travel in because of the weather' as an excuse for not turning up to work. She rather thought her parents were starting to feel antsy about being trapped in Naniji's house; once the snow stopped in the afternoon, they announced that they were going for a walk in the countryside and left quickly. Parvati wondered if that really was what they would do; or if her father would apparate the two of them away somewhere for an hour's break in a café or restaurant or even to their own home. They all loved Naniji (and she loved them), but she had done nothing but criticise them all morning.

Parvati was hiding out in the bedroom she and Padma usually shared (which felt very strange without her sister there, for all they were both nearly 20), and so she didn't hear the doorbell ring until her Grandmother called up the stairs that they had visitors. Confused, she made her way down to the kitchen, only to find Ashwin standing there, grinning sheepishly up at her.

She wished she'd put on some make up.

"This is Ashwin Nirwandi," Naniji said. "This is Parvati, one of my granddaughters," she added proudly, pulling Parvati closer.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Ashwin said, inclining his head towards her.

"And you," Parvati said, faintly.

"I was concerned about your Grandmother being alone with all this snow, and I wanted to make sure she had enough milk and bread," he said, holding up a carrier bag.

"Oh," said Parvati. In the daylight, he looked even better than he had last night.

"He is a very good boy," Naniji said, patting him on the arm. He flushed slightly, and Parvati resisted the urge to giggle. "And, you know, he comes to visit his parents every weekend and he lives down in London! That is more than _your_ parents do, and they only live in Birmingham."

"Well, in London there are...lots of trains," Parvati offered. Naniji and Ashwin both looked at her strangely. "Um," she said, her voice slightly higher pitched than usual, "would you like a cup of tea?"

Naniji thought that was an excellent idea; she was soon steering him into the kitchen peppering him with questions about mutual friends of his parents' whilst Parvati sorted out mugs. She waited impatiently for the kettle to boil (she was never more thankful that she was a witch than after a few days at her Grandmother's house, waiting for kettles to boil), and became aware of Naniji singing her praises to Ashwin. She tried not to cringe—subtlety was not Naniji's strong suit.

"It is a shame Padma could not be here, either, so you could meet her. This snow, it ruins everything!"

"It's set to pass by this evening, I heard," Ashwin said.

Naniji steered the conversation back towards Parvati. "Both of my granddaughters are very special. They even went to a special school for very gifted students, up in Scotland, you know. It is only for the elite!"

"A boarding school?" Ashwin asked, a strange note in his voice.

Parvati's stomach tightened, but not unpleasantly.

"Yes!" Naniji answered for her. "Do you know it?"

"I...I went somewhere similar," he answered.

"You are gifted also?"

"Um," he replied, giving an awkward laugh. "I don't know about that. _Charming_, they told me. But I had a good time. We were lived in a castle, though—so cold in the winter. Worse than this!"

Parvati's hands shook as she poured water into the teapot. He couldn't, _couldn't_ be implying...

"My school was quite old-fashioned, too," she said, not looking at either her Grandmother or Ashwin. "We had Houses, and each House had its own mascot. Ours was a lion..."

She risked a glance at him. He seemed to be keeping a good poker face, but when she glanced under the table, she saw his foot was tapping at a million miles an hour, as though he was trying really hard to keep something under wraps. As though, any minute now, he was going to burst out with some grand announcement...

No.

She had to stop putting words into his mouth. Or thinking she was putting words into his mouth. Ashwin couldn't be a wizard. It was ridiculous!

She pushed a bit harder.

"My sister, though, she was in a different House," she said. "Their mascot was an eagle."

"I've always been partial to badgers, myself," he replied, staring resolutely at the kitchen clock. Parvati's pulse was racing, like she'd just run a marathon.

"Is that tea made, yet?" Naniji asked, and she jumped.

"Coming right up!" she squeaked.

"Padma works as a doctor, at St Michael's," Naniji said. "That's in London." They couldn't tell her, of course, the real name of the Hospital Padma worked at, so they'd made something up and 'Michael's' was the closest to 'Mungo's' that they could think of at the time. But now, she was realising that it wasn't actually that similar, and if she really wanted to know if he got it, she'd have to...

"She loves working there. She always wanted to _heal_ people," Parvati said lightly. This time, she looked straight at him.

His lips twitched, as though he was trying not to smile. "Healing is a noble calling indeed," he said solemnly.

"And what do you do?" Naniji asked him. Parvati set down the mugs of tea as he answered.

"I work for the police, on the front line," he replied. "Finding troublemakers, arresting criminals...it's very hands on. Sort of like a hit squad, you know?"

Parvati nearly choked on her tea.

"Parvati works for the police force, too!" Naniji said, sounding delighted. "But she works in...what is it...memories?"

She tried not to splutter tea everywhere. "Um, sort of. I work with people who might have witnessed a crime or...an _event_, to try to see what they remember of it," she said, unable to come up with a better on-the-spot passably muggle description of _Obliviator_.

"Oh, I've worked with people like that before," Ashwin said. "It's a very useful skill to have." She bit her lip, trying not to smile.

"Maybe then the two of you will meet each other at work," said Nanaji, sounding delighted.

"I'm not sure," Parvati said. "The building I work in is quite secretive and well hidden. Given the, ah, sensitive nature of our work, that's quite important."

"I understand," Ashwin said. He caught her eye and winked, and she had to look away. "Where I work, it's the same. But the building I work in—it's such a lovely old building. The architecture is just beautiful. It's almost _magical_, you know?"

She couldn't resist the gasp of laughter that slipped out. "Oh, there's a lot of places like that in London," she said. "Often hidden in plain sight, too."

His eyes shone as he nodded in agreement, and his smile was even bigger than hers. But before she could think of even more loosely coded things to say, Naniji jumped in, changing the subject and asking him about all the friends of his family that she knew. This turned out to be a long list: for nearly half an hour, he patiently answered questions on this person who was getting married, that person who'd just had a baby, the other who'd started a new job, and Parvati, who didn't know any of them, was forced to sit through the conversation in relative silence.

She wasn't bored, though: she thought she could listen to Ashwin talk all day, and seeing how polite and kind he was to her Grandmother made her very happy. You could even say it _charmed_ her. She buried her face in her cup of tea and snorted at the inside joke with herself.

Finally, Naniji's questions dried up, and Ashwin politely extracted himself, saying he had to get back to his parents' house. Parvati hastily tried to think of an excuse to make him stay, but Naniji announced that Parvati would see him to the door, and she inwardly thanked her Grandmother, leaping out of her chair at once and practically dragging him to the front door.

"She doesn't know," she said, once she was sure they were out of earshot.

Ashwin's face was blank. "Know what?" he asked. Parvati's heart plummeted. All that—all those nods and winks and I know something and you know it too references—and she'd just imagined it, hoping for a connection?

"I..." she stuttered, unable to think of a single thing to say.

Ashwin grinned. "Kidding," he said. "So when were you at Hogwarts?" She resisted the urge to shriek for joy and jump around punching the air.

Barely.

"I'm nineteen, so I've not long left," she said. "How about you?"

"I'm twenty-six next month," he replied. She did some quick mental maths. It seemed unlikely that their paths would have crossed at school, or if they had, he would have been in his seventh year when she was in her first, which would explain why she hadn't recognised him, and she said as much.

"I think I recognised you," he said. "Not from school," he clarified hastily. "I mean, from work. I'm with the Hit Wizards, based at the Ministry of Magic. You're an Obliviator, right?"

She nodded. "I guess it's likely we passed each other in the corridors at some point," she said. "But..." She recalled the previous night, "I like to think I'd remember a face like yours."

He grinned. "I guess you're just hard to place, not in your work robes," he said. "Muggle dress is very different. So, are you muggleborn?"

"No," she said. "My Dad's a wizard, but my Mum's a muggle. How they met...well, it's a long story. And my Grandmother is my mother's mother, so she doesn't know about magic. Part of that's because of that Statute of Secrecy, you know, and part is because my Dad reckons she'll hate him even more if she finds out he's a wizard. Family politics, you know? Not that she really hates him!" she added hastily, as Ashwin laughed. "She's lovely, she really is. But she's just...um, yeah."

Ashwin nodded as she trailed off, flushing. She never could keep her mouth shut around men she fancied, Lavender was always telling her off for rambling.

"It must be a lot to keep straight, though," he said. "In your mind, I mean."

"It can be," she said. "Do you...are your parents..."

"Muggles, but they obviously know about magic," he said.

She frowned slightly. "So, in the war, how did you...?"

"I...persuaded them they might want to spend some time in India," he said. "They're both from there; they moved here a few years before they had me. And I went on the run."

She nodded once. The smile had vanished from his face, and she noticed he'd been rubbing a spot on his arm as he spoke. When he stopped, she saw a faint scar there and shivered slightly. "Were you at school at that time?" She nodded again.

"It was...pretty grim," she said.

"It was," he agreed. "But—we both came through it. We survived. And I...it was tough. But it made me glad to be alive, glad to have_ survived_, you know?"

"I...yes," she said. She did know.

A noise in the kitchen made them both jump, and then, when they realised it was just her Grandmother, laugh, which broke the tension.

"Look, I really have to be getting back," Ashwin said. "But—I should tell you, I only came over here to see if I could see you again. I knew your Grandmother wasn't really home alone." She giggled, unable to stop herself. She could hear Lavender and Padma in her head: _he liiiiikes you. You liiiiike him. _"And then I found out that you're a witch, too!"

"I really am a dream come true," she said coyly, and he grinned.

"Are you...may I take out for dinner?" he asked.

She couldn't help it, she giggled again. He was asking her out! And he was really attractive! And a wizard! She barely restrained herself from dancing a jig on the spot. "You may," she smiled.

"You work at the Ministry, right?" She nodded. "Could I perhaps pick you up from the Atrium, on Monday? I finish at 5."

"That sounds good with me," she replied. "But could we maybe make it a little later in the week?"

"Sure, but why?"

"Well, we have to keep up the façade of not being able to leave because of the snow," Parvati said, pulling a face. "Hence the car, and everything. I can't go to work if it stays because Nanaji thinks we're still snowed in, so I can't just apparate. And that'd be a pain, but I'd survive...but I _really _don't want to miss our date."

He didn't bat an eyelid. "I'll come and dig out your car. I'm very strong," he said, with a wink.

And, as they said their goodbyes, Parvati found herself saying a silent prayer for more snow. If he worked hard digging the car out, he might even have to take off his shirt...


End file.
